I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 366

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 366
Ep. 366
Of course, if I wanted to, I could simply sever Akne’s lifeline right now and then search the temple thoroughly.
But it would take considerable time, and more importantly, I had no way of knowing what might unfold outside during that interval—a decision was necessary.
I felt the weight of a dilemma that circulated endlessly across the internet.
‘When a nuclear bomb is about to detonate in the heart of New York, should you torture a likely suspect with no evidence?’
There could be various perspectives on such matters, but I had my own thoughts.
When it actually came down to my own situation, making a different choice would be genuinely difficult.
Besides, in Akne’s case, there wasn’t even a lack of evidence!
There couldn’t be a deeper conspiracy than this.
I activated a specialized skill in the exact form of a handgun.
Then I spoke to Akne.
“I hope you’ll think carefully about this.”
“Think carefully about what…”
Thwack—!
“——————!!!!!!”
Slime Round—a non-lethal skill that absolutely never kills the target.
It possessed an effect potent enough to snap even the Dragon King back to his senses when he had lost his mind to some bizarre force.
This time was no different.
Though the Earthweb was difficult to treat with Slime Rounds, the effect from that time remained intact.
Akne, who had been steeling himself, turned deathly pale without even managing a scream.
The Cardinals who had gone before him had their breath cut short the instant they were struck, but he couldn’t even manage that.
His entire past life flashed vividly before him.
Memories that had grown increasingly hazy since the Earthweb took hold—yet his mind activated to an extreme degree under the irresistible agony.
How much time had passed?
The pain seemed endless.
Hours? Days? Perhaps months?
As memories grew vivid, consciousness grew distant.
At the edge of that abyss, Akne grasped his voice once more and returned to reality.
“Where is the High Priest?”
“…uh…?”
Akne looked around with unfocused eyes.
The corpses of fellow Cardinals, still missing heads or vital points, lay scattered throughout the space.
I asked again.
The explosion had thrown the enemies into chaos, but it wouldn’t be long before they regrouped and swarmed this location.
I had to finish this before then.
“You must know where the High Priest is.”
Akne opened his mouth, still dazed.
“There… go through that open hole….”
“Where… ah.”
Ihyeon followed the man’s gaze and soon located the opening he was referring to.
It was a secret passage that one of the fleeing assailants had revealed by pushing aside a bookshelf and forcing it open.
“The High Priest resides at the very bottom of the temple….”
“Yes. I understand well.”
Ihyeon nodded in acknowledgment.
– Waaah!!!
– There’s a problem in the Cardinals’ chambers!
– Go up! Move!
Just as Ihyeon had anticipated, chaos erupted outside in an instant.
I had no choice but to leave this place before troublesome complications arose.
Yet as if Akne had sensed my intentions, one of his four drooping arms twitched as he spoke.
“Huh?”
Hearing Akne’s words, Ihyeon tilted his head in confusion.
Meanwhile, outside the room where Ihyeon was located.
Saedos and Duogsinis who had detected the disturbance among the Cardinals were converging in great numbers.
The Saedos themselves were not merely those who controlled the Duogsinis, but combat Saedos with considerable skill in their own right.
They didn’t know what scheme Ihyeon’s expedition had orchestrated, but they were confident that with their combined forces, they could defeat any enemy.
“Ilgyeok of course, and all the subordinates of the others are outside! The one here definitely can’t do anything without a surprise attack!”
This was the extent of the expedition’s military strength as understood by the cult.
Ihyeon’s commander, Ilgyeok.
Under him, Jia, Elsie, Blue, and the Vice Captain.
Since no particularly outstanding figures appeared beyond them, it might have been a decent assessment given this world’s intelligence capabilities.
At most, they had merely deployed a few of the One-Strike Knight Order as a separate detachment, and that level could be handled entirely on their own.
But they failed to realize something.
“There! Just around that corner is the door!”
“Hurry!”
“Damn it, the door is blocked!”
That whether Ihyeon was present or not made no difference—all the other key figures were outside.
The Saedos who confirmed the entrance, with its original door torn away and replaced with all manner of junk blocking it, immediately began clearing a path.
Bang—! Bang—!
It was only a matter of time, so there was nothing to worry about.
No sounds of combat could be heard from within.
Perhaps the Cardinals had already suppressed the enemy and concluded the situation.
‘Kekeke, of course. After all, the Cardinals are far more powerful than we are.’
Though startled by the sudden attack, this was a natural progression.
To capitalize on the surprise attack’s advantage, targeting the highest-ranking forces—the Cardinals—first was only natural.
Though their failure to assess their own capabilities was a critical blunder.
Thud—!
“It’s open here!”
“Destroy more!”
Finally, a pile of rubble collapsed, and through the opening, I could glimpse what lay beyond.
The Saedos cheered and exerted themselves to expand the entrance.
However, one of the Saedos who peered through the hole went rigid, his expression hardening instantly.
“Huh?”
“What’s wrong? You should be putting in more effort, you fool!”
“No, that thing over there….”
“?”
What could he possibly have seen to react like that?
The gruesome corpses of enemies?
The grotesque true forms of the Cardinals?
But a combat Sado wouldn’t be shaken by something of that magnitude.
Then perhaps….
“Run—”
BOOOOOM——!!!!!
That was their final question.
Before the Sado who glimpsed beyond the opening could even finish saying “run,” an irresistible force came crashing down from the other side.
In truth, what that Sado saw was entirely different from everyone’s expectations.
Someone holding what resembled a massive staff, aiming it in a straight line at both the Cardinal and the entrance.
Though I had never seen his face before, the Sado instinctively recognized that he was Ilgyeok.
Unfortunately, even if he had completed his warning to flee, nothing would have changed.
My mana bullets, converted from the Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle, packed in considerable numbers through the cramped corridor.
CRAAAAAASH——!!!
And swept it all away.
No one remembered what came after.
…Though even if they did remember, those whose breath had ceased could hardly speak of it.
BOOM—!
“What now?!”
“The, the Minister’s Hall….”
After the explosion that sent part of the ceiling flying,
Not long after, one side of the Minister’s Hall’s wall crumbled down with a tremendous crash.
The Minister’s Hall, having lost its initial grand appearance, now felt half-ruined.
The flying-type Duogsinis that had been taking flight to attack the expedition were swept up in the shockwave and were annihilated en masse.
At first, they were too flustered to notice, but not anymore.
At least the expedition members who had traveled with Ihyeon thus far now clearly understood what those explosions and that powerful beam meant.
“It’s Ilgyeok!”
“Ilgyeok is inside the Minister’s Hall!”
“What, what?!”
“How did Ilgyeok—?”
“Then the Captain’s flag over there is…?”
Ilgyeok, the expedition’s most formidable force, had somehow infiltrated the Minister’s Hall.
The fact that the Minister’s residence was collapsing from within seemed to cause even greater chaos for the religious order.
For those who had believed their tactics amounted to little more than rotational maneuvers across the Plain, or at best guerrilla warfare utilizing mobility.
The notion that an enemy commander could suddenly infiltrate their own camp and strut about freely was clearly beyond the realm of common sense.
“Where are we supposed to go, then?”
“Well, shouldn’t we be fighting them directly?”
“Cowards! How can you plant the commander’s flag and claim your commander is absent?!”
“No, listen—you’re hardly in a position to lecture us about cowardice!”
“But still….”
Along the front lines where the Expedition and the religious order clashed, the proportion of verbal sparring increased unexpectedly.
With two explosions having erupted within the Minister’s residence, the momentum had shifted entirely to one side.
The religious order, which had barely managed to hold on, began losing the strength of the Saedos and retreated helplessly.
“Forward.”
“Yes, Captain!”
“We can’t fall behind the Armor Fox!”
Uuuuooooohhhhh——!!
“Go! Follow the Sword Infantry Captain!”
“Beep beep beep, estimated time remaining until breakthrough of the front line: 1 minute 39 seconds.”
“That’s… that’s all it will take?”
Kuuuuaaaaahhhhh——!!!
“…Looking at what Blue is doing, it might take even less time?”
“That’s… that’s how long it will take?!”
Jia, Elsie, Blue, and the Vice Captain, who already knew that Ihyeon was infiltrating the Minister’s residence, began unleashing the power they had been holding in reserve.
From above, it appeared as four blades driving straight into the Minister’s residence.
Of course, as if in a final desperate struggle, the Minister’s residence also mobilized all remaining forces, and the balance seemed to shift once more—but everyone engaged in combat could sense it instinctively.
‘The end was not far away.’
In whatever manner, regardless of which side claimed victory, the end of the war unfolding in this land of storms was imminent.
* * *
Rat-a-tat-tat——!!!
Meanwhile, Ihyeon rushed down through the secret passage just as Akne had indicated.
He set aside the thought that Akne might have leaked false information.
‘After all, this secret passage was opened by a Cardinal seeking his own escape route. It won’t lead anywhere useless.’
Moreover, the slime round had struck true.
When he couldn’t even be certain whether he was alive or dead at this very moment, if someone possessed the mental fortitude to leak false information, then so be it.
Though the entrance had collapsed into ruin from Ihyeon’s gunfire, the secret passage itself descended deeper underground exactly as Akne had described.
A dim staircase with no light to guide the way.
Keeeeek—!
“Die!”
As he descended, Duogsinis seeping into the walls and Saedos suddenly bursting from hidden spaces proved bothersome to Ihyeon.
Bang—! Bang—!
But Ihyeon felled them without hesitation, using his pistol.
‘A handgun really is useful in times like these.’
My abilities had long since transcended the standards of this realm by a vast margin.
In truth, even without a handgun—whether wielding a sword or any other weapon—carving through this path would have posed no significant challenge.
How far had I descended in my sprint?
….
The tumultuous atmosphere born of the war Outside had long since fallen silent.
The dark and oppressive ambiance had transformed as well.
Illumination blazed brilliantly in scattered places, and the materials themselves were no ordinary stone—instead, they gleamed with a pristine white beauty that caught the eye.
“…Appalling taste.”
As the landscape shifted abruptly before me, I slowed my pace and surveyed my surroundings, my brow furrowing as I clicked my tongue.
I was hardly in a position to critique the cult’s operations, yet this sprawling Plain—which had been plunged into terror by its master—seemed far too resplendent for such a dwelling.
Elaborate flowers, the likes of which I had never witnessed on the Plain, were arranged in vases and bloomed in full splendor, though I could not fathom where they had been procured.
Now I finally understood why this place was called the Minister’s Hall.
A crimson carpet, long benches arranged in neat rows.
It was a space with interior design scarcely different from an actual cathedral on Earth.
At the front, a pulpit elevated high above.
Before it, a figure who had been kneeling with his back turned to me rose with a fluid, otherworldly grace.
Though clearly in motion, his movement bore an uncanny quality utterly unlike that of a human.
It was a sensation that, depending on one’s perspective, could even inspire revulsion.
As he turned to face me, the man’s visage came into view.
“…A human?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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